Congestive heart disease is a progressive and debilitating illness characterized by a progressive enlargement of the heart. As the heart enlarges, the heart must perform an increasing amount of work to pump blood each heartbeat needed for metabolism. In time, the heart becomes so enlarged the heart cannot adequately supply blood. An afflicted patient is fatigued, unable to perform even simple exerting tasks and experiences pain and discomfort. Further, as the heart enlarges, the internal heart valves may not adequately close. This may impair the function of the valves and further reduce the heart's ability to supply blood. Importantly, there is no cure for congestive heart disease.
Congestive heart failure has an enormous societal impact. In the United States alone, about five million people suffer from the disease. Alarmingly, congestive heart failure is one of the most rapidly accelerating diseases (about 400,000 new patients in the United States each year). Economic costs of the disease have been estimated at $38 billion annually. Not surprising, substantial effort has been made to find treatments for congestive heart disease.
Cardiomyoplasty is one potential treatment for moderate stage congestive heart disease. In this procedure, the latissimus dorsi muscle (taken from the patient's shoulder) is wrapped around the heart and chronically paced to assist contraction of the heart during systole.
One study speculates that an artificial elastic “sock” could be used in place of the latissimus dorsi in adynamic cardiomyoplasty. Kass et al., “Reverse Remodeling from Cardiomyoplasty in Human Heart Failure,” Circulation 91:9, May 1, 1995. Another study demonstrates that Bard Marlex sheets can be used to wrap the heart as a substitute to the latissimus dorsi in adynamic cardiomyoplasty. Oh et al, “The Effects of Prosthetic Cardiac Binding and Adynamic Cardiomyoplasty in a Model of Dilated Cardiomyoplasty,” Journal of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery, 116:1, July 1998. German Utility Model Patent Application DE 295 17 393 U 1 describes a pericardium prosthesis made from a biocompatible, non-expansible material, or at least hardly expansible material that surrounds the heart to prevent over-expansion of the heart wall. PCT application WO 98/58598 describes an elastic pouch for at least partially enveloping a heart. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,343 to Alferness dated Dec. 30, 1997 teaches a jacket to constrain cardiac expansion during diastole. Other teachings include those of commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,662 and those of U.S. Pat. Application Publication No. US 2002/0019580.